One of the ways I've been getting rid of books is to take them to the little free library in Stuyvesant Park at 16th St., and 2nd Ave. Today there was a man going through the box who said slim pickings today. I said I'm dropping off not looking And we fell into a wonderful conversation about books and getting rid of books and the ones he puts under the couch when he gets a copy that's in better shape and rolled his eyes at himself for doing that. Then another guy came along and was excited about a book of art from the Metropolitan museum but in Japanese. He said his Japanese wasn't very good. I said I dropped the book off and he said oh do you speak Japanese. I bowed and said, hajime mashtei, which means pleased to meet you, but he didn't understand. One of those wonderful New York conversations between strangers. Strangers who could become friends. Or who already are, if only for a few minutes.
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